11 Clever Ways to Use Your Old Tea Bags

If you want your houseplant to thrive, put a bag on top of the drainage layer at the bottom of the pot before planting. This will help your soil retain water and leach nutrients from the tea bag.

The next time you go to clean up the soot in your fireplace, cup open a damp tea bag and sprinkle the wet leaves onto the surface first. These particles will help keep dust from rising up and making your task twice as hard as it needs to be.

If your dinner plates are covered in grease and stains, save your elbow grease (we had to) and throw a couple of used tea bags into your sink for five minutes instead. Your sink will turn into a giant cup of tea and break down grease on dishes at the same time. However, we don't recommend doing this to your special dinnerware. 

Since roses love the tannic acid in tea, sprinkle old tea leaves around your bushes so when you water them, the nutrients from the tea will seep into the soil. You'll see them grow like crazy as a result.

After brewing a mug of black tea to perk you up mid-afternoon, use that damp bag to make your mirrors look better, too. Wipe the bag onto your mirror when it's still wet, then buff the surface with a dry cloth until it produces a streak-free shine.

The next time you mince garlic, chop onion or handle another stinky ingredient, rub a tea bag over your hands as you wash them in the sink to prevent these long-lasting smells from sticking to your hands.

Every parent has found themselves in dire need of an activity to fill up their kids' afternoon. This blogger's solution? She gave her children spray bottles and had them blast tea bags with water to create a water color-like craft project.

Tennis shoes are worn during some of life's smelliest moments (like, at the gym). But if you don't want those smells to resurface every time you put your shoes on, stick a dried-out tea bag in the toe of your sneaker and let it sit there over night.

This trendy plant (trust us, it's going to be the next big house plant) loves acid. To help it grow to be extra lush, work wet tea leaves into soil around these plants or in their hanging baskets.

The next time your kid comes in from outside with a super red back, use freshly-brewed tea bags to reduce the redness, by to the burnt skin.